Dravid announces retirement from ODIs

Hours after he was chosen for the ODI series in England, veteran Indian batsman Rahul Dravid announced his retirement from both the 50-over and T20 formats of the game.

However, he will play in the five-match ODI series against England, beginning on September 3 and continue playing Test cricket for India.

Dravid, who made a surprise comeback into India's limited-overs squad for the five-match ODI series after being out of the side for two years, said in a statement that he was surprised to be chosen for the England series.

"I am honoured and privileged to be selected in the Indian one-day team," he said after India's warm-up match against Northamptonshire in which he did not play.

"Since I had not been picked for one-day cricket for the last two years, I was obviously a little surprised and to be honest, because I had not been picked," he said in the statement issued after the warm-up game.

He said he now wants to concentrate on Tests in the future though he had not informed about it to the BCCI before his selection.

"At the end of this one-day series, I would like to announce my retirement from one-day and Twenty20 cricket and concentrate only on Test cricket. I had not informed the selectors or the board of my desire to solely focus on Test cricket," he said.

"I am committed, as always to give my best to India in this one-day series and obviously the Test series that follows."

Dravid last played an ODI against the West Indies during the 2009 Champions Trophy in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dravid has made 10765 runs in 339 ODIs with an average of 39.43 with 12 hundreds and 82 fifties. He has not played any Twenty20 International match.